THE FIFTH QUESTION

What is a Neutrino?

I shall introduce this section of my Web pages by reproducing the text of a paper I drafted some time ago with a view to publication by a scientific periodical. The editor of that periodical declined to publish this but encouraged its revision, asking me to acknowledge some prior work that was unknown to me and was of record in the German language but which, enquiry indicated, would be difficult to trace to establish availability. The claim was that someone else had already suggested that the neutrino was a manifestation of an aether property and I was trying to claim that idea as my own. Well, much of what I present in these Web pages is my own brainchild and all I can say is that I am only too happy to hear that I have been anticipated on some of my researches by others. Indeed, it endorses one's efforts to know of related prior work and should help to secure acceptance by the scientific community generally. Science historians will then put the record straight as to who invented what. So I shall first present the paper I wrote and I expect I will follow that with an onward discussion as I add more pages to this website. If some reader is kind enough to compare what I say with what they might know concerning prior work then I will be glad to receive feedback and will report that in these Web pages. The only amendments I have made in presenting the paper are those providing links to other sections of these Web pages plus a noted revision concerning the references to Tifft's discovery concerning galactic redshifts.

THE ILLUSORY NATURE OF THE NEUTRINO

Harold Aspden

Energy Science Limited

c/o P.O. Box 35, Southampton SO16 7RB, England

Abstract

It is shown that a vacuum medium in which lepton pairs are created from energy quanta may well contain, hidden in its zero-point energy background, a system of neutral particle forms which are constituted by the closely paired association of a virtual lepton system. The concept of the neutrino may then be an illusory effect arising from energy conditions which separate the components of those neutral entities. A major advance of this paper is the linking of the author's earlier work, as reported in the Hadronic Journal, with the energy quantum threshold implicit in the determination of the fine-structure constant. The galactic red shift observations by Tifft (1977) are shown to confirm the theory for the fine-structure constant. See Tutorial Note No. 10 and Lecture No. 6 in these Web pages. Also, for a full reference to the author's collected papers as they appeared in the Hadronic Journal take note of the current availability of the author's 1996 book 'Aether Science Papers'. See Books and Reports by Dr. Harold Aspden.

Preliminary Introduction

This paper has been written as a result of the author meeting R. M. Santilli (Editor in Chief, Hadronic Journal) on two occasions, firstly in Denver, Colorado at a conference on the New Energy theme and secondly in London, England at a conference on the interpretation of the theory of relativity. Dr. Santilli wondered why there had been no follow-on based on my papers [1-8] published in Hadronic Journal in the period 1986-1989 and urged the author on both occasions to address the question of the neutrino.

The reason for that lack of follow-on, in simple terms, is that, it having become evident to the author that to prove the need for an aether, as the canvas on which we should paint the true picture of physics, we need a breakthrough discovery by which we are able to tap into the energy source that pervades the aether. The author has been diverted to explore and search for that breakthrough.

As part of that experimental research a phenomenon has been encountered by which energy in the form of heat is converted into electricity in a way which appears to defy the second law of thermodynamics. [See Solid-State Thermoelectric Refrigeration in these Web pages.] Applied in its ultimate form, as now foreseen, it will involve assembling a laminated structure of nickel film interleaved with layers of an insulating medium which is superconductive. Now that might seem to be a contradiction in terms, but it is not. Applied science is now revealing to us the existence of polymer films which are heat insulating in the plane of the film but which have superconducting filamentary paths transversely through the film. Such a material, said to exhibit room temperature superconductivity, has been discovered by Grigorov, as reported in a recent article entitled: 'The Goldsmid-Grigorov Accomplishment: A Major breakthrough in Thermoelectrics' at pp. 67-69 in the the No. 10, 1996 issue of the periodical 'Infinite Energy' [9]. [See Infinite Energy to access the website giving information concerning that periodical.]

This subject is mentioned here because it is connected with the fundamental physics addressed in this paper. The connection involves electron-positron chains. The author introduced these in his 1969 book [10] as links between individual nucleons in an aether-coupled structured distribution of the atomic nucleus which applies to atomic nuclei of mass number from tritium-3 onwards. Recently, in relation to the cold fusion theme, the electron-positron chain theme was used to explain the lifetime, the magnetic moment and, indeed, the mass of the tritium nucleus [11]. [This is the subject addressed at pp. 41-44 of the author's Energy Science Report No. 5 'Power from Water: Cold Fusion'. See Books and Reports by Dr. Harold Aspden. As to the electron-positron chain theme, although the 1969 book 'Physics without Einstein is now out-of-print, a relevant description contained in a 1974 work is to be found in these Web pages as Energy Science Essay No. 15 under the title of 'The Chain Structure of the Atomic Nucleus'].

It was a feature of the author's theory that the aether comprises a degenerate form of electrical charges, each seated at a lattice site in a cubic structure and set in a uniform background continuum of charge of opposite polarity. The ratio of the unit cell volume to the lattice charge volume was found to be 5059, which made 1 in 5059 the chance of a 'hit' by a sporadic virtual muon involved in an ongoing pair creation and annihilation process creation targetted on the lattice charge. In contrast, the electron charge occupies a volume that is 1/1843 that of the lattice charge. As shown in [11], the theory for the triton lifetime requires 8 virtual muons to converge on a lattice charge which has a crucial position in the tritium nucleus. But those muons must have the right combination of charge polarities and the odds favouring decay increase by a factor of 9, because there are 9 chances in the 256 different ways in which 8 pairs of two virtual muons of opposite charge polarity can satisfy the decay condition.

Without going into further detail, it is simply noted that the triton lifetime is formulated as:

(5059)8/9(1.235x1020) seconds

which is 12.2 years, exactly the mean lifetime found experimentally! Here we have used the Compton electron frequency, 1.235x1020 Hz, as the rhythmic time cycle rate of the aether activity. I do, however, quote the following from pages 38-41 of [11]:

'The triton does, in fact, comprise two protons plus one antiproton .... The triton, therefore, has to have a nuclear beta particle chain able to bridge two lattice sites and it probably has two protons in close proximity that straddle the lattice charge of one site whereas the antiproton nucleon constituent is seated at the other lattice charge site.'

The decay corresponding to that lifetime of 12.2 years is based on a combined virtual muon 'attack' on that straddled lattice charge. These comments serve as giving background support to the charged lepton chain theme.

Now, the structure and properties of the proton, deuteron and neutron had all been explained in Hadronic Journal papers [1, 7]. However, the 'cold fusion' report just referenced included also the theoretical justification, based on the Hadronic Journal background, justifying the observed abundance ratio as between protons and deuterons as present in normal water.

As to electron-positron chains it is topical to note that T. Jacobsen in a very recent issue of European Physics Journal has discussed how an insulator can be superconducting [12]. He explains how 'electric charge may be transported through the insulator not by conduction electrons but by a chain reaction of successive electron-positron annihilations not hindered by ohmic resistance'.

In the following discussion of the neutrino, the concept of electron-positron chains will be seen to play an important role. In this connection an electron-positron chain can be visualized as an in-line linkage of alternate electrons and positrons as if they were beads threaded on a string. They are held together by mutual electrostatic attraction of adjacent charges and the string does not collapse owing to the special properties of the aether which requires each charge to be at rest in the electromagnetic frame of reference. In a sense one could say that the string-bead analogy applies as if the strings link adjacent sites in a cubic-structured aether and the groups of beads can slide along the string from site to site. In reality, however, the ongoing vacuum activity of mutual pair annihilation and recreation serves to relocate these charges when there is such migration. The centre of each charge must not, therefore, have relative motion with respect to the reference frame of its neighbours in a conglomerate system, as that would polarize the charge group and involve non-minimal energy states, given that the electromagnetic reference frame is itself in a state of jitter in the inertial frame.

In the following description we will use symbols such as oo and oooo to indicate an electron-positron pair coupled as a neutral entity, the smallest string length, and a short electron-positron-electron-positron chain, respectively.

We will rely on analysis presented in reference [1] for the reader to understand why the oo combination has an energy of 1.25 electron mass units and the oooo combination has an energy of 2.25 mass units. It will then be evident that we can have neutral electron-positron chains which can be ruptured from the oooo state to become oo plus o plus o, meaning that a free electron and a free positron have been 'created'. The energy involved in this rupture is 2.25 minus 1.25 or one single electron rest-mass unit, yet an electron and a positron have been released from a neutral field background.

[Since these numerical terms are of the utmost importance to this Web presentation, the relevant physical analysis has been entered as a separate item in these Web pages. See Electron-Positron Chaining.]

By applying the principles disclosed in that same reference [1] the reader can verify that a six charge electron-positron chain oooooo has an energy of 3.225 electron rest-mass units. These three numerical quantities, 1.25, 2.25 and 3.225, will be used as we proceed to explain the physical nature of the neutrino.

From this preliminary introduction, the reader should therefore now see the gist of the author's case as we proceed in a more formal way.

Main Introduction

The author's earlier papers in Hadronic Journal [1-8] show that it is possible to decipher much of what Nature discloses to us by packaging energy in the various species of fundamental particles. However, in this quest, which has preoccupied the author now for more than 30 years, there are two phenomena which seem not to fit into the author's interpretation of the physical pattern. These are high energy gamma radiation at frequencies exceeding the Compton electron frequency and the so-called neutrino, if seen as a particle having a finite but extremely small mass.

[Concerning gamma rays having frequencies exceeding the Compton electron frequency, I tend not to believe in that hypothesis. Has anyone ever measured such a frequency directly, as opposed to inferring it by unwarranted assumption based on an extrapolation of Planck's radiation formula to a realm outide its empirical bounds?]

[Concerning neutrino mass, that too seems to me to be an imaginary notion and my thoughts on that are not qualified, but rather reinforced, by the recent discoveries claimed from tests at a site in Japan. See Neutrino Mass.]

Charged particles offer clues as to their form, by virtue of their response in a magnetic field which evidences their magnetic moments as well as their mass and lifetime properties. Even the neutron reveals its inner structure by showing us a magnetic moment and the fascinating feature of that quantity is that, measured in nuclear magnetons, it is -1.91304308(54), precise to 0.28 parts per million. Why, you wonder, is this so fascinating? The reason is that -g(22/23), where g, the gyromagnetic ratio is 2, is -1.9130435, that is, it agrees with experimental observation to a part or so in ten million. It means that the neutron is separated from one of its positive beta particles for one part in 23 of the time. The reason for this is explained in ref. [1].

When we try to probe the mysteries of the neutrino there are, however, no such clues to help us. One then wonders if the neutrino is a figment of imagination invented in order to make the books balance on the momentum score board!

As to the high energy gamma radiation, here again, one wonders whether there really is something having a characteristic very high frequency and corresponding to an extrapolation of the properties of the photon or whether this is another case where imagination has gone just a little too far. Perhaps here also we have simply a situation where momentum and energy imbalance imply a phenomenon which has no relationship whatsoever to gamma radiation of the kind seen in the 100 keV region. The ultimate threshold could well be at 511 keV, where the frequency reaches the cut-off value set by the rest-mass energy of the electron.

Accordingly, there is some purpose in asking whether ultra-high energy gamma radiation and neutrinos describe the same phenomenon and whether that phenomenon can best be described by another name. By this one could infer the existence of something that can absorb energy and momentum and release that energy and momentum elsewhere but in a form duly packaged which somehow has the signature of specific threshold energy conditions of the emitting source.

The task at hand, therefore, is to follow an intuitive line of reasoning and suppose that we have been ignoring something of a universal nature that intermediates in exchanging momentum and energy with matter, by which one infers an aether. Expressed in simple terms, can it be that our references to neutrinos and those high energy gamma rays are really nothing other than references to energy transactions involving the aether?

Now before developing this theme by examining how we have come to accept that neutrinos are real particles which can penetrate matter as if unobstructed (a traditional property of the aether), it will help to review the situation posed by the photon.

The Photon

It is often asked whether the photon is a particle or a wave. This author answered that by deriving the physical relationship between the energy quantum locked into a photon and the frequency of that photon. This involved deciphering the code hidden in the numerical value of the fine-structure constant, it being a dimensionless physical quantity combining three quantities having physical dimensions. These are (i) Planck's constant h, which has the dimensions of angular momentum, (ii) the unitary charge e, the magnitude of which is common to both proton and electron and seemingly all fundamental charged particles and (iii) the speed of light c. The latter quantity is a property of the expanse of space in which we know there can be resonance at photon energy levels sufficient to generate an electron-positron pair. Therefore space is filled with something that can resonate to shed electrons and positrons created as if from nowhere but only if the photon energy input is of adequate strength.

Clearly, therefore, the fine-structure constant is the vital clue to understanding what is out there filling space and, by deciphering its numerical code, which is now measured to part in ten million precision, we can at least discover something about the nature of the photon.

Before commenting further on that theme there is also an important point to consider concerning those high-energy gamma rays. Evidently we should need the energy of two photons at the Compton electron frequency, namely twice 511 keV to create an electron-positron pair, but does that really mean that we need one gamma ray of energy 1.022 MeV, as is often assumed? There is something physically unsatisfactory about expecting two particles, as individual photons, to come together in collision to combine to set up that energy resonance at 1.022 MeV. The true nature of the photon mechanism has to be our guide to the territory we are investigating. It is an 'event' in which energy and momentum are transferred between aether and matter with an additional association with a frequency characteristic attributable to aether wave propagation.

[My account of the photon, backed by a theoretical derivation of the value of the fine-structure constant with part per million precision is to be found in these Web pages in Tutorial Note No. 8 and, concerning whether photons really transport energy across vast distances in space rather than setting up wave ripples in an existing sea of energy, refer to the experimental data of An Antenna with Anomalous Radiation Properties.]

Digressing now, for a moment, let us ask a question which seems never to be raised in physics, namely what is it that determines whether a charge has positive polarity or negative polarity? There is one and only one answer that appeals to the author. This is that all focal points of electric charge participate in an oscillation at the Compton electron frequency. Not only does this endow the field medium with that threshold photon frequency set by the electron or positron rest-mass energy but it constrains the scope for interpreting effects assigned to the muon and taon neutrinos.

If all charge is locked into a universal oscillation rhythm and set in either of two phases that are 180o apart then all positive charge will oscillate in one phase and all negative charge will oscillate in antiphase with the positive charge. The oscillation is seen as being a radial oscillation referenced on the charge centre, with charge volume of a particle and its anti-particle conserved as if they are situated in an incompressible enveloping medium. It is true that this implies instantaneous action-at-a-distance in the Coulomb gauge we use here, but remember that retardation and speed-of-light propagation are phenomena we associate with electromagnetic energy transfer, rather than electrostatic action [6].

This model can be developed in many ways. For example, ignoring the oscillation, and prescribing that charge parity, energy and space volume of three charges forming a group are all conserved, one finds that the Thomson charge model used in references [2, 8] involves a self-stabilizing system. Including the oscillation condition then directs consideration to a four-charge grouping.

The author's paper [1] gives the essential clue for understanding how an electron-positron pair can be created from the input of a single 511 keV energy quantum.

The Electron Neutrino

In referring to the paper just referenced and with the neutrino question in mind it seems that we might solve the neutrino problem with very little difficulty.

As already indicated in the Preliminary Introduction it was suggested that the rest-mass energy of a single electron would suffice to split the oooo neutral electron-positron chain into three components, a neutral oo pair, an isolated electron and an isolated positron. This is pair creation, ostensibly, from a 511 keV energy input.

In neutrino terms the conventional scenario is one which describes the action as involving a `ghost particle' (See Professor Sir Harrie Massey's book 'The New Age in Physics', and the section commencing at p. 262 on 'The Neutrino as a Ghost Particle' [13]. However, in the standard literature the neutrino is presented as a mystery particle more in connection with the heavy electron, the muon, than with the normal electron, even though the physics is much the same for both.

With regard to the electron neutrino, this appears in Massey's account (page 254) as an item in the following equation:

1H3 ~ 2He3 + e- + no ........ (1)

The symbol no represents the neutrino, but in this situation it amounts to a mere declaration that the energies of the source particle and the two products do not balance and so what has gone missing must be a 'neutrino'. As Massey explains, in referring to Pauli's neutrino hypthesis, we need "to suppose, boldly, that in beta decay a second particle is emitted together with an electron (and in muon decay, two such particles)."

The point here is that the tritium nucleus sheds very little extra energy when it converts into a helium 3 nucleus and an electron, whereas the muon sheds almost all of its energy in decaying into an electron or positron and, in the absence of something to absorb the impact of this decay, it needs two additional component products to balance both energy and momentum. This is owing to the fact that the electron or positron produced can have different energies and momentum according to the way chance governs the decay. Why then, however, do we not see the need for two neutrinos in the tritium decay? The reason presumably is that there are already two particles involved and so, mathematically, one can generate the necessary number of equations to keep energy and momentum in balance. But in deciding in this way whether one or two neutrinos are created are we not merely playing with our mathematics and forcing an interpretation to suit our assumptions? Why cannot we just suppose that the aether can absorb any balance of momentum and energy and share that overall with all the other particle events that occur everywhere in space?

Surely, concerning the muon, its decay is not self-motivated but involves, instead, a kind of impact by an external agency which does its work to rupture the muon and, after reducing it to an electron, sheds the rest of the energy into an external sink that absorbs it. Here we see the aether playing a role as both an emitter and an absorber.

Now, the neutrino that is supposedly generated by equation (1) is of such small energy that it can hardly be regarded as a real particle. In contrast, the combined energy of the two neutrinos shed by the muon decay is very nearly the whole energy of the muon itself. However, why should we then divide that energy into two neutrino forms? It is submitted that the likely scenario is that something which this author declares to be a virtual muon impacts the real muon and the result is a collapse into an electron or positron with the energy of very nearly two muons being deployed into the aether.

The author has referred in [2] to a P:Q system, which features in his theory of proton creation. The Q component is what the author terms a dimuon and the analysis in that paper explains that a Q:(mu) system has the same mass-energy as Q alone, but Q is charged and Q:(mu) is neutral. The energy of (mu), namely half of Q, can therefore be absorbed to separate (mu) from Q:(mu) whilst still conserving charge parity. Similarly if we revert to the theme of the Preliminary Introduction and take the oooo symbols as applying to short chains of positive and negative muons, rather than electrons, then the transition:

oooo ~ oo + o- + o+ ......... (2)

would mean that a single unit of muon rest-mass energy has been absorbed with charge parity conserved. In other words, if the background field includes neutral objects oooo and we witness an event in which a muon decays to shed virtually all of its energy then that can be explained. One simply needs to see the resulting field background as comprising neutral entities oo plus muon pairs that become part of the quantum-electrodynamic field.

It is important here to have regard to the fact that the author has derived the precise value of the proton-electron mass ratio and explained proton creation in terms of such an active virtual muon field background [7]. [See Debate on Creation.] Therefore the existence of a system which can absorb muon energy as a 'neutrino' process is part of that picture. The reaction:

Emu+ Q:(mu) ~ Q+ + (mu)- ......... (3)

conserves charge parity but absorbs the energy Emu of the muon.

It is submitted, therefore, that the problem of the 'neutrino' concerns, not the question of whether this is a mystery particle having enormous penetrating power and virtually no mass, but simply the capacity of the aether to absorb energy and momentum. The aether is particularly adept at absorbing energy shed by lepton decay for the simple reason that it is constituted by a particle system that, in its active form, is nothing other than a vast lepton system.

A Key Item of Evidence

To add to what has been said above the author now presents a quite remarkable and new aspect of his theory which bears upon this neutrino problem.

It was shown in a 1972 paper [14] that the most degenerate negative particle form in the aether is a charge form that has the same charge as the electron but occupies a volume of space exactly 1843 times that of the electron. Its 'pressure' equilibrium with an enveloping muon environment led then directly to the evaluation of the mass-energy of the virtual muon as having a mass-energy 206.333 times that of the electron.

Later [7,15] the author discussed this in relation to there being two types of virtual muon, one having precisely 207 times the electron mass and one having 205 times the electron mass. From this, taking the heavier version as the core for the real muon, it was shown how the actual mass of the real muon of 206.7683 electron mass units could be derived theoretically [15].

Based on this background the author feels justified in presenting the following analysis.

We regard the vacuum medium as alive with activity involving the ongoing creation and decay of virtual muons with a statistical incidence of one such pair in every cell of space in each cyclic period at the Compton electron freqency. A cell of space comprises one single vacuum lattice charge e, which the author will henceforth refer to as the quon, it being the quon that is the degenerate negative charge form occupying that volume of 1843 single electrons or positrons. In the author's earlier writings this particle was termed a q particle or lattice particle because it formed with all other such particles a crystal-like structure defining the unit space cell just mentioned.

The cell dimensions are those of a cube of side 6.374 10-11 cm, as shown in reference [16], [17] or [18]. The first reference was published in 1960 and shows that at that time, though the inertial mass of the quon was known, its physical size had not be determined. By 1966 [17] this problem had been solved in a quite remarkable manner. Knowing inertial mass of the quon from its natural rhythmic motion at the Compton electron frequency and the Maxwell displacement field theory governing that motion, one could determine the energy density of the enveloping medium. It was found that the energy of that medium per unit space cell was equal to that of two muons if the pressure throughout the charge body of the quon was equal to that of the enveloping medium. Importing a fact from hydrodynamics by which a sphere in motion through a fluid having the same mass density exhibits half its normal mass it then became possible to determine the physical radius of the quon. It was found to be 2.3x10-12 cm.

In this way the space occupied by the quon charge was determined and the fine-structure constant, alpha, indicated by the 1960 presentation of the theory [16] was determined to part per 100,000 precision. When the calculations over space, extended to virtually an infinite cell range, were made by independent researchers in 1972 using the computing facilities at the National Measurement Laboratory in Australia, it became evident that part per million precision in accord with the measured value of alpha pointed to the integer 1843 as being the volume ratio of the quon charge to that of the electron [14]. Charge radius was based on the use of the Thomson formula of 2e2/3mc2, where m is the rest-mass of the charge.

We will now rely on this odd integer 1843 as signifying the possibility that, when energy is injected into the quon, by the incidence of those muons striking it as a target in their creation and ahhihilation activity, the result is the creation of 1843 electrons and positrons, meaning 922 electrons and 921 positrons.

It would take nine muons to create a system in which all these electrons and positrons were isolated from one another. The chance of that occurring is very much smaller than the chance of, say, five muons impacting the quon in a sufficiently concerted way so as to operate collectively in its transmutation. This is why we need to consider the formation of electron-positron chains, as their formation needs lower energy.

The shortest chain oo is not as stable as the oooo chain, since it takes at least three charges in a group to comply with the three governing conservation conditions (space volume, charge parity and energy) [19]. Therefore the oooo will be the most likely product to emerge from the quon source. Analysis then shows that 460 units of oooo have a collective mass-energy of 460 times 2.25 electron units, which is 1035, whereas 1840 electrons and positrons are involved in this process. The dominant virtual muon has a mass of 207 electron units and 5 times 207 is 1035, which is why attention is being focused onto this particular quantitative choice.

Analysis shows that it is impossible to apply more than five or less than five muons and emerge with a result that allows 1842 electrons and positrons to emerge as neutral chains, however they may divide into groups, given the need for conservation of energy. The 1.25 for two components, 2.25 for four components and 3.225 for six components, converging to a limit just above 0.5 energy units per electron or positron component, precludes the muon energy input from being anything other than about half of 1843 units. Hence the five muon restriction.

Now there is more than one solution to the ultimate combination of neutral e-p chains that are formed, given rigorous energy conservation and different possible groupings of five muons which can have either of 205 or 207 electron mass units. This does not matter, unless we seek, in developing this theory, to be too rigorous in estimating the lifetimes and creation rates of the 'neutrino' products, assuming these are the nearest we can come to tracing something resembling a neutrino form in our theoretical study of the space medium. For all cases there will be a predominance of the oooo state, because this has the greater stability. The primary combination, based on five 207 unit virtual muons being involved, is tabulated in Table I. E denotes the energy of the e-p chain components and W is total energy of the n components in a group. V is the total unit volume of that group and o signifies the isolated electron necessary to assure charge parity owing to 1843 being odd and the quon having the charge of the electron.

TABLE I

e-p

E

n

W

v

oo

1.250

7

8.75

14

oooo

2.250

427

960.75

1708

oooooo

3.225

20

64.50

120

o

1.000

1

1

1

total

-----

-----

1035

1843

Neutrino Abundance

The proposal emerging from this analysis is that there can be neutral electron-positron chains formed as an ongoing activity in the vacuum medium and this is not just linked to the decay of the muon we see in our high energy particle reactions. However, the fact that 'neutrinos' of this special form exist gives us a glimmer of understanding as to how electrons and positrons can be created by vacuum energy fluctuations, as by separation of oooo into oo plus o plus o. Also, if energy is shed from decay reactions of lepton forms then its deployment amongst the different forms of our 'neutrino' as suggested by Table I could explain how the vacuum medium absorbs that energy into its neutral system.

This would mean that the momentum imparted is an action propagated through the system of the main quon lattice and so communicating action to remote locations through space where eventual release of energy will balance the momentum condition.

It is desirable that we have some rough indication at least concerning the factors governing the lifetime of these neutrino forms as just conceived.

However, at the present time there is really no measured value that will allow us to check the theory now advanced and so what follows has to be seen as rather speculative. Even the recently reported estimate of the rest-mass energy of the neutrino as being 2.4 eV seems too vague to be of any meaning [20]. It is impossible to conceive that a rest-mass energy of 2.4 eV could be linked to any neutral combination of two equal and opposite unitary charges having the values we associate with all other particles in the universe. Even the neutron betrays its composition in meaningful terms by showing its magnetic moment, but we see no trace of a magnetic moment for the neutrino. It would seem that its oooo composition is never partially ruptured into separated charges in an ongoing recovery sequence, as it is for the neutron during one period in 23.

To have a rest-mass energy of 2.4 eV the neutrino, as a combination of plus or minus e charges, would have to have a physical form of a radius several hundred thousand times that of the electron. It would exceed the spacing of atoms in solid matter. Such a neutrino could not penetrate through that matter. Therefore the 2.4 eV trace of energy deemed to be involved in the experiments involving the neutrino scenario will probably imply some small perturbation of the vacuum medium, rather than affording direct evidence of neutrino mass.

Conclusions

I had planned at this stage to discuss also the taon neutrino and then try to predict the abundance of these neutral lepton groups which I deem to be present throughout space. Abundance depends upon lifetime and incidence of creation and these depend upon the way in which the virtual muon bombardment affects the 'physical chemistry' of the two-way reaction:-

E + oooo ~ oo + o + o ........ (4)

Instead, owing to my attentions having been diverted by a news media report, I will end by commenting on that 1843 factor introduced above.

The 'neutrino' sea which pervades all space as a catalyst constituent of the aether which allows energy to materialize as protons and electrons must also be present in remote galactic regions. The question then at issue is whether the 1843 factor is the same on a universal scale.

I have always assumed that it would be the least value consistent with minimal zero-point energy activity and it being an odd integer to conserve charge parity when electrons and positrons are created from energy input. The 1972 Physics Letters paper [14] determined the zero energy limit for a non-integer value as being N = 1844.53. The relevant formula for the reciprocal of the fine structure constant alpha is:

(alpha)-1 = hc/2(pi)e2 = 108(pi)(2)1/2N-1/6 = 144(pi)(r/d) ...... (5)

and the rigorous zero-energy evaluation gave r/d as 0.302874.

Increase of energy activity means that the zero-point energy expands the quantized orbital motion of the aether charges in their orderly and synchronized jitter activity. As energy increases, N will decrease in value, but it evidently does that in integer steps, because 1843 is the value which gives us the fine-structure constant and other constants such as the proton-electron mass ratio that apply at least within our local galaxy.

I did once wonder whether the red shift properties of quasars could mean that physical constants as we know them, such as G and h, have quite different values in some remote galactic regions. In particular, could the energy concentration become so overwhelming that, in some parts of the universe, the 1843 quantity is drastically reduced. If Planck's constant h were to be increased, for example, in some galaxies, and by this I do not mean that it changes with time on the Hubble scale, but does remain a true constant in its own galactic system, then some galaxies might be seen to have a slightly anomalous red shift.

That might seem to be pure speculation, but it caused me to work out how a reduction of N in one integer step could affect the fine-structure constant, and so h. The analysis itself is fascinating, because there are two terms in equation (5), r and d, which can both alter as more energy priming is added to the aether lattice.

[The following section of text in the subject paper needs to be revised to conform with a revision that was applied to the subject of Tutorial No. 10 by a correction to be found in Lecture No. 6. However, for continuity in presentation, the original text will be retained and an Appendix will be added to the paper, the Appendix being a section of text taken from the above-referenced Lecture No. 6, the subject being Tifft's Galactic Redshift Measurements.]

The frequency of radiation for a particular spectral line is proportional to (alpha)2 and so N1/3, but it is also proportional to the Compton electron frequency. The latter is the frequency of the fundamental rhythm of the aether and this frequency times the distance d represents a speed that I regard as a universal constant. Therefore we need to know how d might change with N. The answer to this is readily found because the electron rest mass energy is also a universal constant, as is the energy density of the aether, and from this we can deduce that N-1/3/d3 is a universal constant as well. Therefore, d is proportional to N-1/9 and the Compton electron frequency is proportional to N1/9.

The net result of all this is that the frequency of a spectral line emitted from an N-type galaxy will be proportional to N4/9, so, if N is reduced, there will be a red shift component attributable to this change in the N factor. A reduction by one integer step in the 1843-1833 range corresponds to a fractional shift of 1 part in 4135. If the red shift is expressed as an apparent speed difference this, as a fraction of the speed of light, becomes 72.5 km/s.

Now, having spent 40 years developing this theory since I first discovered the theory for the fine-structure constant and some 25 years since the N-integer feature of that formula was first recognized, I confess surprise that, only now, have I been bold enough to explore the effect of N having a value other than that applicable here on Earth and within our immediate cosmic environment. My surprise turned into real excitement when, very recently, I heard that a senior figure (W. G. Tifft) in the astronomical world had published, some 20 years ago, a paper entitled: 'Discrete State of Red Shift and Galaxy Dynamics II' [21]. That paper reported that 'red shift differentials between pairs of galaxies and between galaxies in clusters are found to take on preferred values which are various multiples of 72.5 km/s'. My attention was drawn to this only because The Times newspaper in U.K. reported this mystery and declared that Tifft's discovery had been fully confirmed by research findings of independent observatories [22].

Surely that is proof indeed that my theory for the fine-structure constant, as founded in an aether medium, is on sound foundations! That means, I submit, that the `neutrino hypothesis' which I advance in this paper will come to be recognized also as well founded. However, given that I believe no one will ever be able to prove that a 'neutrino' is a material particle, I expect that what I say on that subject will remain a hypothesis. It should, however, awaken interest in my papers referenced below that have appeared in the Hadronic Journal.

APPENDIX

The following is an excerpt from Lecture No. 6 in these Web pages. It concerns the measurement of hyperfine frequencies in the radiation spectrum from remote galaxies, which exhibit anomalous redshift properties, seemingly differing in steps as between different galactic regions.

QUANTIZED GALACTIC RED SHIFTS

Note that fh is the frequency representing the hyperfine radiation spectrum of hydrogen. As a red shift, expressed as an apparent Doppler shift velocity, based on the 300,000 km/s speed of light, this formula tells us that the quantized step in the red shift is:

(300,000)[1 - (No/N)1/9]km/s,

so you can verify that if No, as reference, is taken to be 1843, then as N decreases in integer steps so the red shift changes in steps of 18.1 km/s.

If you refer to the pages of my Tutorial No. 10 you will see from equation (5) that the aether lattice dimension d was shown to vary as N-1/9. Certain other aether quantities, such as mec2, hfo, e2/d and fod, were all deemed to be truly universal constants, notwithstanding the possibility that fo, d, h and e individually could be different in different galactic domain regions.

The variation of d, the lattice spacing, was based on the assumption that the energy density of the aether lattice structure remains uniform throughout the universe. I now see that this was an error. I should have regarded the main energy constituent of the aether, that of the virtual muons, as being of uniform density. Thus you can see, from the expression for mmu/me,namely:

mmu/me = [3/8(pi)][108(pi)]3(1/N)4/3

that it is (1/N)4/3/d3 that is the universal constant and this makes d proportional to (1/N)4/9.

Keep now in mind the fact that our Tutorial analysis showed us that d is equal to 108(pi) electron charge radii and that the rest-mass energy of the electron, which we assume to be a universal constant, is proportional to e2 and inversely proportional to that charge radius. This tells us that e4 is proportional to d2 and so to (1/N)8/9.

Now, to come to the nature of the microwave radiation detected by Tifft and from which the quantization of galactic red shift was measured, it is noted that the formula for the frequency of hyperfine line separation producing the 21 cm emission is proportional, in theory, to the product of the Bohr magneton eh/4(pi)mec and the nuclear magneton eh/4(pi)mpc as divided by Planck's constant h. This represents a term proportional to frequency and explains that sixth equation in the above group, namely:

fh = Kh(me/mp)(e/mec)2 = K'(N)1/9,

where K and K' are constants of proportionality.

Since me/mp is proportional to N4/3 and e4 is proportional to (1/N)8/9, that microwave expression becomes proportional to h(c)2/e2 times N4/9. Note that mec2 is a universal constant. Now we know from the fine structure formula above and its derivation that h(c)2/e2 is proportional to c(1/N)1/6 and c/r is proportional to fo, whereas r/d is proportional to (1/N)1/6, so that microwave expression becomes proportional to (N)4/9(1/N)1/6(1/N)1/6fod, which reduces to proportionality to N1/9, because fod is also a universal constant. Accordingly, we have justified the form of the sixth expression listed above.

Remember that in the Tutorial No. 10 account, based on an assumed optical red shift, the corresponding variation was N4/9. That had explained the red shift steps of approximately 72.5 km/s with N stepping downwards through both odd and even integers.

However, with our corrected analysis based on the radio spectrum observation, the theory implies red shift steps of 18.1 km/s as N decreases in integer sequence.

Now it is my understanding from reading more of Tifft's work that, though 72.5 km/s is the dominant feature in the quantization of galactic red shifts, there are intermediate levels of quantization, typically involving 36 km/s and 18 km/s red shift spacing.Tifft has written many papers on the subject, ranging over a 25 year period, many appearing in the Astrophysical Journal.

It now becomes an interesting exercise to explore the factors which might govern how Nature selects one value of N with a stronger preference to another and to assess how this N quantization spectrum might have other cosmological implications.

Having only recently come to see this feature that N can have a value other than 1843, I can only proceed tentatively in my own exploration of the subject, but a picture is developing. It is based on the belief that the virtual muon population, which must have the mean mass-energy values as determined by the above expression for mmu, adapt to a mix of virtual muon pairs of odd units disposed either side of that mean value. Thus, if the mean virtual muon has 206.3329 electron units of energy, as applies with N as 1843, then there are pairs of muons of 207 and 205 units in a mix having a ratio of very nearly two to one.

Do note that this numerical circumstance might well explain why 1843 is rather special. An N value of 1844 corresponds to the least state of energy potential but it is 1843 that offers the easy route to proton creation, because nine virtual muons have to contribute to its creation and the statistical mix of 205 and 207 muons is virtually a 1 to 2 ratio. This means that three 205 muons plus six 207 muons can come together in a smooth energy transition to create the proton, whereas the N value of 1844 would involve some energy turmoil.

Now, if you then consider how an aether domain can adapt to a higher energy state, meaning one for which r/d has increased and N reduced, there has to be creation of electrons and positrons to take up the volume of space freed by the reduction of N. Note that N is an integral number of electron charge volumes in an aether lattice particle, the quon. Now, there are only two ways in which N can change as a space domain boundary moves through the energy system that fills all space. N can increase or decrease. It will increase if it moves from a region where there are too many electrons and positrons in the quantum electrodynamic underworld. These will combine to create more compact forms of matter, those protons that we know are created by surplus aether energy. So as each electron positron-pair suffers its demise to shed energy for pooling as part of that creation process, their charge volumes will be taken up by two quons expanding their individual volumes by one unit. N will increase by 1.

The reverse process is not that simple, because a quon has no way of acting alone to shed some volume and create an electron or positron. It has to look for assistance from the migrant leptons that are present everywhere in space. The electron-positron pairs cannot serve this purpose, because they act to increment N and we are now presuming that they are in a deficit state, because we are going to create them as the domain wall progresses.

So we look to the virtual muons which we know bombard the quons to create the proton but we are only looking at an event where a virtual muon pair attacks the quon, rather than that rare event of proton creation when a multiplicity of virtual muons need to attack in the same rhythmic cycle period. The scenario therefore is one for which a pair of 207 muons, in 'fertilizing' the quon, shed energy to decay into a pair of 205 muons by creating two electrons and two positrons. This means that N can only decrease in steps of 4 units as the quon shrinks a little to free the space needed by those electrons and positrons.

Consider what this means. There are regions of space in which there is an excess of thermal energy. Thermal energy is associated with motion of matter and all such motion involves inducing electron-positron activity in space. Indeed, the kinetic energy of an electron can be shown to be attributable to the statistical creation of electron-positron pairs in the close proximity of that primary electron. Space has a way of allowing such activity, whilst conserving energy, charge parity and the volume of space occupied by electric charge, but that process concerns the equilibrium of the interplay between matter and the aether and we are here considering the interplay between aether and aether at a space domain boundary wall. Those virtual electrons involved in the quantum-electrodynamic underworld are really part of the aether. They can store energy temporarily but we want our domain wall transition to be between two stable modes, each locked in a state defined by that number N.

The thermal energy that escapes by being radiated well away from its matter source has to be absorbed by the aether and it must somehow over-populate space with those virtual electron-positron pairs which we see as affecting N at the seat of boundary transitions.

We have argued that N can only increase one integer unit at a time, but it can only decrease in steps of 4 units. Decrease of N corresponds to increase of material energy activity in the domain. Therefore, where there are cataclysmic events in space releasing enormous amounts of thermal energy, the domains will form with lower N values, probably stepped down in units of 4 from the base value of 1843. As to probability of the N transition in the 'cooling' phase, domain boundaries do not move through points in space at short intervals of time. They are well separated by distances measured in light years, as evidenced by their effect on geomagnetic field reversals, so in stepping down one integer digit at a time we shall have a series of domains at the unit intervals which are associated with a 'cooling'. The 4-step domain states are the ones set up by the 'hot' state, meaning the stronger source of microwave radiation.

Then remember that each of those unit steps has been shown theoretically to involve a red shift difference of 18.1 km/s. The stronger radiation will come from the domains with the N tiering at the 4 unit separation. This would suggest 72.5 km/s red shift intervals between radiation from these domains. So what this all amounts to is my tentative explanation as to why 72.5 km/s is the dominant red shift interval, but red shifts said to be close to 36.6 km/s and 18.3 km/s are also observed.

In questioning this idea, keep in mind that my theory holds firmly to the proposition that truly fundamental charge forms are spherical and comply with the J.J. Thomson formula relating energy E, charge e, radius R and mass M, namely:

E = 2e2/3R = Mc2.

This means that the quon, which has a charge volume N times that of the electron is important in these space volume considerations, as is the electron, but all other particle forms which have very much larger mass are insignificant as to the charge volume requirements. The story is, of course, very different for the taons and gravitons which sit in the G-frame, as even the most minute volume of space that they displace can make its presence felt through the space domain as a gravitational action.

Having regard to the energy implications involved in these changes of N, it will need a great deal of analysis of the actual observations of those anomalous red shifts before one can comment further. I do feel, however, that it is here that the evidence can be found to prove my theory of the proton and with it the theory of the fine structure constant and the constant of gravitation. The parameter N holds the key and it seems that those red shifts observed by W. G. Tifft of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank, West Virginia and the Steward Observatory in the University of Arizona, Tucson have opened the door to which that key belongs.

Harold Aspden

June 18, 1998

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